Document #1: Weekly Observations
Case Study 1: Angelica
Age: 9 months old
Location: Early Childhood Care Center
Document #1: Weekly Observations
Read this month’s worth of weekly observation reports by Angelica’s primary caregiver at her early childhood care center:
September 6:
This week, Angelica has continued to cry at periods throughout the day. It often happens when she is tired before a nap. I have noticed that she is using other expressions to ask for things, like pointing. She is smiling often, grabbing at objects, and putting objects in her mouth. She is holding a spoon and helping to feed herself.
September 13:
Angelica’s crying was less frequent this week. She is responding to sound and speech from caregivers, and is beginning to make sounds that sound like speech. She also responds and seems to understand when spoken to in both English and Spanish. I have also noticed that she is more and more interested in other children lately.
September 20:
Angelica continues to show interest in communicating with other children. The other day, I was reading Angelica a book in the corner, and I showed the book to a group of 2-year-olds at a nearby table. When one of them wanted to look at it, she got upset and cried. She is showing signs of wanting to be more independent and likes to explore the space around her by crawling and walking while holding onto the wall or shelves. She wants to touch and hold everything.
September 27:
Angelica has become very good at feeding herself and often refuses assistance. There were 2 days this week that she did not nap well. On those days, she tended to cry more and did not respond well to speech from adults. I have noticed a great fluctuation in her need for attention from adults and her willingness to explore on her own. Yesterday, she spent the morning playing with toy objects with another child, and seemed to be making speech sounds. After an unsuccessful nap, however, she was very fussy for the rest of the afternoon and unresponsive to our attempts to use speech and sounds to calm her. She relaxed only when she had a toy that she could touch or put in her
The Global City: introducing a Concept
SASKIA SASSEN
Professor of Sociology
University of Chicago
EACH PHASE IN THE LONG history o f t h e world economy raises specific questions about
the particular conditions that make it possible. O n e ofthe key properties ofthe current
phase is the ascendance of information technologies and the associated increase in the
mobility and liquidity of capital. There have long been cross-border economic pro-
cesses—flows of capital, labor, goods, raw materials, tourists. But to a large extent these
took place within the inter-state system, where the key articulators were national states.
T h e international economic system was ensconced largely in this inter-state system.
This has changed rather dramatically over the last decade as a result of privatization, 27
deregulation, the opening up of nationa ...
Document #1 Weekly ObservationsCase Study 1 AngelicaAg.docx
1. Document #1: Weekly Observations
Case Study 1: Angelica
Age: 9 months old
Location: Early Childhood Care Center
Document #1: Weekly Observations
Read this month’s worth of weekly observation reports by
Angelica’s primary caregiver at her early childhood care center:
September 6:
This week, Angelica has continued to cry at periods throughout
the day. It often happens when she is tired before a nap. I have
noticed that she is using other expressions to ask for things, like
pointing. She is smiling often, grabbing at objects, and putting
objects in her mouth. She is holding a spoon and helping to feed
herself.
September 13:
Angelica’s crying was less frequent this week. She is
responding to sound and speech from caregivers, and is
beginning to make sounds that sound like speech. She also
responds and seems to understand when spoken to in both
English and Spanish. I have also noticed that she is more and
more interested in other children lately.
September 20:
Angelica continues to show interest in communicating with
other children. The other day, I was reading Angelica a book in
the corner, and I showed the book to a group of 2-year-olds at a
nearby table. When one of them wanted to look at it, she got
upset and cried. She is showing signs of wanting to be more
independent and likes to explore the space around her by
crawling and walking while holding onto the wall or shelves.
2. She wants to touch and hold everything.
September 27:
Angelica has become very good at feeding herself and often
refuses assistance. There were 2 days this week that she did not
nap well. On those days, she tended to cry more and did not
respond well to speech from adults. I have noticed a great
fluctuation in her need for attention from adults and her
willingness to explore on her own. Yesterday, she spent the
morning playing with toy objects with another child, and
seemed to be making speech sounds. After an unsuccessful nap,
however, she was very fussy for the rest of the afternoon and
unresponsive to our attempts to use speech and sounds to calm
her. She relaxed only when she had a toy that she could touch or
put in her
The Global City: introducing a Concept
SASKIA SASSEN
Professor of Sociology
University of Chicago
EACH PHASE IN THE LONG history o f t h e world economy
raises specific questions about
the particular conditions that make it possible. O n e ofthe key
properties ofthe current
phase is the ascendance of information technologies and the
associated increase in the
3. mobility and liquidity of capital. There have long been cross-
border economic pro-
cesses—flows of capital, labor, goods, raw materials, tourists.
But to a large extent these
took place within the inter-state system, where the key
articulators were national states.
T h e international economic system was ensconced largely in
this inter-state system.
This has changed rather dramatically over the last decade as a
result of privatization, 27
deregulation, the opening up of national economies to foreign
firms, and the growing
participation of national economic actors in global markets.
It is in this context that we see a re-scaling of what are the
strategic territories that
articulate the new system. With the partial unbundling or at
least weakening of the
national as a spatial unit due to privatization and deregulation
and the associated
strengthening of globalization come conditions for the
ascendance of other spatial
units or scales. Among these are the sub-national, notably cities
and regions; cross-
5. The globalization of economic activity entails a new type of
organizational structure.
To capture this theoretically and empirically requires,
correspondingly, a new type of
conceptual architecture.^ Constructs such as the global city and
the global-city region
are, in my reading, important elements in this new conceptual
architecture. The activ-
ity of naming these elements is part of the conceptual work.
There are other closely
linked terms which could conceivably have been used: world
cities,"* "supervilles,"^ in-
formational city.̂ Thus, choosing how to name a configuration
has its own substantive
rationality.
When I first chose to use global city/T did so knowingly—it
was an attempt to
name a difference: the specificity oFthe global as it gets
structured in the contemporary
period. I did not chose the obvious alternative, world city,
because it had precisely the
opposite attribute: it referred to a type of city which we have
seen over the centuries/ in
earlier periods in Asia^ and in European colonial centers.^ In
6. this regard, it can be said
that most of today's major global cities are also world cities, but
that there may well be
some global cities today that are not world cities in the full,
rich sense of that term. This
is partly an empirical question; further, as the global economy
expands and incorpo-
rates additional cities into the various networks, it is quite
possible that the answer to
that particular question will vary. Thus, the fact that Miami has
developed global city
functions beginning in the late 1980s does not make it a world
city in that older sense
ofthe term.'"
T H E GLOBAL CITY MODEL: ORGANIZING HYPOTHESES
There are seven hypotheses through which I organized the data
and the theorization of
the global city model. I will discuss each of these briefly as a
way of producing a more
precise representation.
First, the geographic dispersal of economic activities that marks
globalization,
along with the simultaneous integration of such geographically
7. dispersed activities, is a
key factor feeding the growth and importance of central
corporate functions. The more
dispersed a firm's operations across different countries, the
more complex and strategic
its central functions—that is, the work of managing,
coordinating, servicing, financing
a firm's network of operations.
Second, these central functions become so complex that
increasingly the head-
quarters of large global firms outsource them: they buy a share
of their central func-
tions from highly specialized service firms—accounting, legal,
public relations, pro-
gramming, telecommunications, and other such services. While
even ten years ago the
T H E BROWN JOURNAL OF WORLD AFFAIRS
The Global City: Introducing a Concept
key site for the production of these central headquarter
functions was the headquarters
of a firm, today there is a second key site: the specialized
service firms contracted by
8. headquarters to produce some of these central functions or
components of them. This
is especially the case with firms involved in global markets and
non-routine operations.
But increasingly the headquarters of all large firms are buying
more of such inputs
rather than producing them in-house.
Third, those specialized service firms engaged in the most
complex and global-
ized markets are subject to agglomeration economies. The
complexity ofthe services
they need to produce, the uncertainty of the markets they are
involved with either
directly or through the headquarters for which they are
producing the services, and the
growing importance of speed in all these transactions, is a mix
of conditions that con-
stitutes a new agglomeration dynamic. The mix of firms,
talents, and expertise from a
broad range of specialized fields makes a certain type of urban
environment function as
an information center. Being in a city becomes synonymous
with being in an extremely
9. intense and dense information loop.
A fourth hypothesis, derived from the preceding one, is that the
more headquar-
ters outsource their most complex, unstandardized functions,
particularly those sub-
ject to uncertain and changing markets, the freer they are to opt
for any location,
because less work actually done in the headquarters is subject to
agglomeration econo-
29
mies. This further underlines that the key sector specifying the
distinctive production
advantages of global cities is the highly specialized and
networked services sector. In
developing this hypothesis I was responding to a very common
notion that the number
of headquarters is what specifies a global city. Empirically it
may still be the case in
many countries that the leading business center is also the
leading concentration of
headquarters, but this may well be because there is an absence
of alternative locational
options. But in countries with a well-developed infrastructure
outside the leading busi-
10. ness center, there are likely to be multiple locational options for
such headquarters.
Fifth, these specialized service firms need to provide a global
service which has
meant a global network of affiliates or some other form of
partnership, and as a result
we have seen a strengthening of cross border city-to-city
transactions and networks. At
the limit, this may well be the beginning ofthe formation of
transnational urban sys-
tems. The growth of global markets for finance and specialized
services, the need for
transnational servicing networks due to sharp increases in
international investment,
the reduced role ofthe government in the regulation of
international economic activ-
ity, and the corresponding ascendance of other institutional
arenas—notably global
markets and corporate headquarters—all point to the existence
of a series of transnational
networks of cities.
WINTER/SPRING 2005 • VOLUME XI, ISSUE 2
11. SASKIA SASSEN
A related hypothesis for research is that the economic fortunes
of these cities
become increasingly disconnected from their broader
hinterlands or even their na-
tional economies. We can see here the formation, at least
incipient, of transnational
urban systems. To a large extent major business centers in the
world today draw their
importance from these transnational networks. There is no such
thing as a single global
city—and in this sense there is a sharp contrast with the
erstwhile capitals of empires.
A sixth hypothesis, is that the growing numbers of high-level
professionals and
high profit making specialized service firms have the effect of
raising the degree of
spatial and socio-economic inequality evident in these cities.
The strategic role of these
specialized services as inputs raises the value of top level
professionals and their num-
bers. Further, the fact that talent can matter enormously for the
quality of these strate-
gic outputs and, given the importance of speed, proven talent is
12. an added value, the
structure of rewards is likely to experience rapid increases.
Types of activities and work-
ers lacking these attributes, whether manufacturing or industrial
services, are likely to
get caught in the opposite cycle.
A seventh hypothesis, is that one result ofthe dynamics
described in hypothesis
six, is the growing informalizarion of a range of economic
activities which find their
effective demand in these cities, yet have profit rates that do not
allow them to compete
for various resources with the high-profit making firms at the
top of the system.
311
Informalizing part of or all production and distribution
activities, including services, is
one way of surviving under these conditions.
RECOVERING PLACE AND WORK-PROCESS
In the first four hypotheses, I attempted to qualify what was
emerging in the 1980s as
a dominant discourse on globalization, technology, and cities
which posited the end of
13. cities as important economic units or scales. I saw a tendency in
that account to take
the existence of a global economic system as a given, a function
of the power of
transnational corporations and global communications.
My counter argument is that the capabilities for global
operation, coordination,
and control contained in the new information technologies and
in the power of
transnational corporations need to be acrualized. By focusing on
the production of
these capabilities we add a neglected dimension to the familiar
issue of the power of
large corporations and the capacity ofthe new technologies to
neutralize distance and
place. A focus on the production of these capabilities shifts the
emphasis to the practices
that constitute what we call economic globalization and global
control.
THE BROWN JOURNAL OF WORLD AFFAIRS
The Global City: Introducing a Concept
Further, a focus on
14. practices draws the categories
of place and work process
into the analysis of economic
globalization. These are two
categories easily overlooked
in accounts centered on the
hypermobility of capital and
the power of transnational.
Developing categories such
as place and work process
does not negate the central-
ity of hypermobility and
power. Rather, it brings to
the fore the fact that many
ofthe resources necessary for
global economic activities are
not hypermobile and are, in-
deed, deeply embedded in
15. place, notably places such as OL ^ f u i L- i t
global cities, global-city re- video stills from "The Paraculture,"
under production
gions, and export processing at ZKM by Hilary Koob-Sassen
(Germany, 2003-4).
zones.
This entails a whole in-
frastructure of activities, firms, and jobs which are necessary to
run the advanced cor-
porate economy. These industries are typically conceptualized
in terms of the
hypermobility of their outputs and the high levels of expertise
of their professionals
rather than in terms of the production or work process involved
and the requisite
infrastructure of facilities and non-expert jobs that are also part
of these industries.
Focusing on the work process brings with it an emphasis on
economic and spatial
polarization because ofthe disproportionate concentration of
very high and very low
income jobs in these major global city sectors. Emphasizing
place, infrastructure, and
16. non-expert jobs matters precisely because so much ofthe focus
has been on the neutral-
ization of geography and place made possible by the new
technologies.
The growth of networked cross-border dynamics among global
cities includes a
broad range of domains: political, cultural, social, and criminal.
There are cross-border
transactions among immigrant communities and communities of
origin, and a greater
intensity in the use of these networks once they become
established, including for
31
WINTER/SPRING 2005 • VOLUME XI, ISSUE 2
SASKIA SASSEN
economic activities. We also see greater cross-border networks
for cultural purposes, as
in the growth of international markets for art and a transnational
class of curators; and
for non-formal political purposes, as in the growth of
transnational networks of activ-
17. ists around environmental causes, human rights, and so on.
These are largely city-to-
city cross-border networks, or, at least, it appears at this time to
be simpler to capture
the existence and modalities of these networks at the city level.
The same can be said for
the new cross border criminal networks.
Recapturing the geography of places involved in globalization
allows us to recap-
ture people, workers, communities, and more specifically, the
many different work
cultures, besides the corporate culture, involved in the work of
globalization. It also
brings with it an enormous research agenda, one that goes
beyond the by now familiar
focus on cross-border flows of goods, capital, and information.
Finally, by emphasizing the fact that global processes are at
least partly embedded
in national territories, such a focus introduces new variables in
current conceptions
about economic globalization and the shrinking regulatory role
ofthe state." That is to
say, the space economy for major new transnational economic
processes diverges in
18. significant ways from the duality global/national presupposed in
many analyses ofthe
global economy. The duality, national versus global, suggests
two mutually exclusive
spaces—where one begins the other ends. O n e ofthe outcomes
of a global city analysis
is that it makes evident that the global materializes by necessity
in specific places, and
institutional arrangements, a good number of which, if not most,
are located in na-
tional territories.
WORLDWIDE NETWORKS AND CENTRAL COMMAND
FUNCTIONS
The geography of globalization contains both a dynamic of
dispersal and of centraliza-
tion. The massive trends towards the spatial dispersal of
economic activities at the
metropolitan, national, and global level which we associate with
globalization have
contributed to a demand for new forms of territorial
centralization of top-level man-
agement and control functions. Insofar as these flinctions
benefit from agglomeration
19. economies even in the face of telematic integration of a firm's
globally dispersed manu-
facturing and service operations, they tend to locate in cities.
This raises a question as
to why they should benefit from agglomertion economies,
especially since globalized
economic sectors tend to be intensive users ofthe new
telecommunications and com-
puter technologies, and increasingly produce a partly de-
materialized output, such as
financial instruments and specialized services. There is growing
evidence that business
networks are a crucial variable that is to be distinguished from
technical networks.
Such business networks have been crucial long before the
current technologies were
THE BROWN JOURNAL OF WORLD AFFAIRS
The Global City: Introducing a Concept
developed. Business networks benefit from agglomeration
economies and hence thrive
in cities even today when simultaneous global communication is
possible. Elsewhere I
20. examine this issue and find that the key variable contributing to
the spatial concentra-
tion of central functions and associated agglomeration
economies is the extent to which
this dispersal occurs under conditions of concentration in
control, ownership, and
profit appropriation.'^
This dynamic of simultaneous Inside countrjes, the leading
financial
geographic dispersal and concentra-
tion is one of the key elements in " i i t e r s today conceiitrate
3 greater
the organizational architecture of the share of national financial
activity than
global economic system Let me first ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^
internationally,
give some empirical referents and
then examine some of the itnpiica- citJes in the glohal North
concentrate well
tions for theorizing the impact of gver half of the global Capital
market.
globalization and the new technolo-
gies on cities.
T h e rapid growth of affiliates illustrates the dynamic of
simultaneous geographic
dispersal and concentration of a firm's operations. By 1999
firms had well over half a
21. million affiliates outside their home countries accoutitine for
USS 11 trillion in sales, a
33
very significant figure if we consider that global trade stood at
US$ 8 trillion. Firms
with large numbers of geographically dispersed factories and
service outlets face mas-
sive new needs for central coordination and servicing,
especially when their affiliates
involve foreign countries with different legal and accounting
systems.
Another instance today of this negotiation between a global
cross-border dy-
namic and territorially specific site is that of the global
financial markets. T h e orders of
magnitude in these transactions have risen sharply, as
illustrated by the US$ 192 tril-
lion for 2002 in traded derivatives, a major component of the
global economy and one
that dwarfs the value of global trade which stood at US$ 8
trillion. These transactions
are partly embedded in electronic systems that make possible
the instantaneous trans-
mission of money and information around the globe. Much
22. attention has gone to this
capacity for instantaneous transmission of the new technologies.
But the other half of
the story is the extent to which the global financial markets are
located in an expanding
network of cities, with a disproportionate concentration in cities
of the global North.
Indeed, the degrees of concentration internationally and within
countries are unex-
pectedly high for an increasingly globalized and digitized
economic sector. Inside coun-
tries, the leading financial centers today concentrate a greater
share of national finan-
cial activity than even ten years ago, and internationally, cities
in the global North
concentrate well over half of the glohal capital market. This is a
subject 1 discuss em-
WINTER/SPRING 2005 • VOLUME XI, ISSUE 2
SASKIA SASSEN
pirically in a later section.
One ofthe components ofthe global capital market is stock
markets. The late
23. 1980s and early 1990s saw the addition of markets such as
Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo,
Mexico City, Bangkok, Taipei, Moscow, and growing numbers
of non-national firms
listed in most of these markets. The growing number of stock
markets has contributed
to raise the capital that can be mobilized through these markets,
reflected in the sharp
worldwide growth of stock market capitalization which reached
over US$ 24 trillion in
2000 and USS 36 trillion in 2001. This globally integrated stock
market which makes
possible the circulation of publicly listed shares around the
globe in seconds is embed-
ded in a grid of very material, physical, strategic places.
The specific forms assumed by globalization over the last
decade have created
particular organizational requirements. The emergence of global
markets for finance
and specialized services, the growth of investment as a major
type of international
transaction, all have contributed to the expansion in command
functions and in the
24. demand for specialized services for firms.'^
By central functions I do not only mean top level headquarters;
I am referring to
all the top level financial, legal, accounting, managerial,
executive, planning functions
necessary to run a corporate organization operating in more than
one country, and
increasingly in several countries. These central functions are
partly embedded in head-
quarters, but also in good part in what has been called the
corporate services complex,
that is, the network of financial, legal, accounting, advertising
firms that handle the
complexities of operating in more than one national legal
system, national accounting
system, advertising culture, etc. and do so under conditions of
rapid innovations in all
these fields. Such services have become so specialized and
complex that headquarters
increasingly buy them from specialized firms rather than
producing them in-house.
These agglomerations of firms producing central functions for
the management and
coordination of global economic systems, are disproportionately
25. concentrated in the
highly developed countries—particularly, though not
exclusively, in global cities. Such
concentrations of functions represent a strategic factor in the
organization ofthe global
economy, and they are situated in an expanding network of
global cities.'^
It is important analytically to unbundle strategic functions for
the global economy
or for global operation, and the overall corporate economy of a
country. These global
control and command functions are partly embedded in national
corporate structures,
but also constitute a distinct corporate subsecror. This subsector
can he conceived as
part of a network that connects global cities across the world
through firms' affiliates or
other representative offices.'^ For the purposes of certain kinds
of inquiry this distinc-
tion may not matter; for the purposes of understanding the
global economy, it does.
THE BROWN JOURNAL OF WORLD AFFAIRS
26. The Global City: Introducing a Concept
This distinction also matters for questions of regulation, notably
regulation of
cross-border activities. If the strategic central functions—both
those produced in cor-
porate headquarters and those produced in the specialized
corporate services sector—
are located in a network of major financial and business centers,
the question of regulat-
ing what amounts to a key part of the global economy will
entail a different type of
effort from what would be the case if the strategic management
and coordination func-
tions were as distributed geographically as the factories, service
outlets, and affiliates
generally. We can also read this as a strategic geography for
political activisms that seek
accountability from major corporate actors, among others
concerning environmental
standards and workplace standards.
National and global markets as well as globally integrated
organizations require
central places where the work of globalization gets done.
Finance and advanced corpo-
27. rate services are industries producing the organizational
commodities necessary for the
implementation and management of global economic systems.
Cities are preferred sites
for the production of these services, particularly the most
innovative, speculative, inter-
nationalized service sectors. Further, leading firms in
information industries require a
vast physical infrastructure containing strategic nodes with
hyper-concentration of fa-
cilities; we need to distinguish between the capacity for global
transmission/comtnuni-
cation and the material conditions that make this possible.
Finally, even the most ad-
vanced information industries have a production process that is
at least partly place-
bound because of the combination of resources it requires even
when the outputs are
hypermobile.
Theoretically, this addresses two key issues in current debates
and scholarship.
One of these is the complex articulation between capital fixity
and capital mobility, and
28. the other is the position of cities in a global economy.
Elsewhere I have developed the
thesis that capital mobility cannot be reduced simply to that
which moves nor can it be
reduced co the technologies that facilitate movement. Rather,
multiple components of
what we keep thinking of as capital fixity are actually
components of capital mobility.
This conceptualization allows us to reposition the role of cities
in an increasingly glo-
balizing world, in that they contain the resources that enable
firms and markets to have
global operations. '̂ The mobility of capital, whether in rhe
form of investments, trade
or overseas affiliates, needs to be managed, serviced,
coordinated. These are often rather
place-bound, yet are key components of capital mobility.
Finally, states, place-bound
institutional orders—have played an often crucial role in
producing regulatory envi-
ronments that facilitate the implementation of cross-border
operations for their na-
tional and for foreign firms, investors, and markets.'^
WINTER/SPRING 2005 • VOLUME XI, ISSUE 2
29. SASKIA SASSEN
In brief, a focus on cities makes it possible to recognize the
anchoring of multiple
cross-border dynamics in a network of places, prominent among
which are cities, par-
ticularly global cities or rhose wirh global city funcrions. This
in turn anchors various
features of globalization in the specific conditions and histories
of these cities, in their
variable articulations wirh their national economies and wirh
various world economies
across time and place.'^ This optic on globalization contributes
to identifying a com-
plex organizational architecture which cuts across borders, and
is both partly de-terri-
torialized and partly spatially concentrated in cities. Further, it
creates an enormous
research agenda in tbat every particular national or urban
economy has its specific and
inherited modes of articulating with current global circuits.
Once we have more infor-
mation about this variance we may also be able to establish
30. whether position in the
global hierarchy makes a dijfference and the various ways in
which it might do so.
IMPACTS O F N E W COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES
ON CENTRALITY
Cities have historically provided national economies, polities,
and societies with some-
thing we can tbink of as centrality. In terms of their economic
function, cities provide
agglomeration economies, massive concentrations of
information on the latest devel-
opments, a marketplace. Tbe question here is: how do the new
technologies of com-
munication alter the role of centrality and hence of cities as
economic entities.
As earlier sections have indicated, centrality remains a key
Feature of today's glo-
hal economy. But today there is no longer a simple,
straightforward relation between
centrality and such geographic entities as the downtown, or the
central business district
{CBD}. In the past, and up to quite recently in Fact, the center
was synonymous with
the downtown or the C B D . Today, partly as a result oFthe new
31. communication tech-
nologies, the spatial correlates oFthe center can assume several
geographic Forms, rang-
ing From the C B D to a new global grid oF cities.
Simply, one can identify three Forms assumed by centrality
today.'' First, while
there is no longer a simple straightForward relation between
centrality and such geo-
graphic entities as tbe downrown, as was the case in the past,
the C B D remains a key
Form oF centrality. But the C B D in major international
business centers is one pro-
foundly reconfigured by technological and economic change.
Second, the center can extend into a metropolitan area in the
form oFa grid oF
nodes oF intense business activity, a case well illustrated by
recent developments in
cities as diverse as Buenos Aires^" and Paris."' O n e might ask
whether a spatial organi-
zation characterized by dense strategic nodes spread over a
broader region does or does
not constitute a new Form of organizing the territory oFthe
"center," rather than, as in
32. the more conventional view, an instance oF suburbanization or
geographic dispersal.
THE BROWN JOURNAL OF WORLD AFFAIRS
Global Gity: Introducing a Concept
Insofar as these various nodes are articulated through cyber-
routes or digital highways,
they represent a new geographic correlate oFthe most advanced
type of "center." The
places that fall outside tbis new grid oF
digital highways, however, are
peripheraiized. This regional grid oF Ttiere is little doubt that
connectJng to
nodes represents, in my analysis, a re- g|o(3a| cJrcuJtS fiaS
brOUght WJtb Jt Z
constitution of tbe concept of region.
Far From neutralizing geography, the Significant level of
development...[and]
regional grid is likely to be embedded e c o n o m j c dynamism.
But tbe question
in conventional forms oFcommunica- , . i-. • . • •
. . r u ^ I of inequality bas not been engaged.
tions infrastructure, notably rapid rail n J O O
33. and highways connecting to airports.
Ironically perhaps, conventional inFrastructure are likely to
maximize tbe economic
benefits derived from telematics. I think this is an important
issue that has been lost
somewhat in discussions about the neutralization of geography
through telematics.
Third, we are seeing tbe Formation of a transterritorial "center"
constituted via
telematics and intense economic transactions. T h e most
powerFul oFthese new geogra-
phies oF centrality at the inter-urban level binds the major
international fmancial and
business centers: New York, London, Tokyo, Paris, FrankFurt,
Zurich, Amsterdam, Los
37
Angeles, Sydney, H o n g Kong, among others.•^^ But this
geography now also includes
cities such as Sao Paulo and Mexico City. T b e intensity oF
transactions among these
cities, particularly through the Financial markets, trade in
services, and investment has
increased sbarply, and so have the orders of magnitude
involved. Finally, we see emer-
34. gent regional hierarchies, as is illustrated by the growth
corridors in Southeast Asia,^'
the case oFSao Paulo in the Mercosur free-trade area,̂ "* and by
the relation between the
participating entities in the Iran-Dubai cotridor.^^
Besides their impact on the spatial correlates oFcentrality, the
new communica-
tion technologies can also be expected to have an impact on
inequality between cities
and inside cities. Tbere is an expectation in mucb oFrhe
literature on tbese technolo-
gies that they will override older hierarchies and spatial
inequalities through the univer-
salizing oFconnectivity that they represent. T h e available
evidence suggests that this is
not quite the case. Whether it is the network oF financial
centers and Foreign direct
investment patterns discussed hete, or the more specific
examinations oF the spatial
organization oF various cities, the new communication
technologies have not reduced
hierarchy nor spatial inequalities.-'' And tbis is so even in the
Face oFmassive upgradings
and state oFthe art inFrastructure in a growing number of cities
35. worldwide. Tbere is
little doubt that connecting to global circuits has brought with it
a significant level of
development oFexpanded central urban areas and metropolitan
grids oFbusiness nodes,
WINTER/SPRING 2005 • VOLUME XI, ISSUE 2
SASKIA SASSEN
and considerable economic dynamism. But the question of
inequality has not been
engaged.
Further, the pronounced orientation to the world markets
evident in many of
these cities raises questions about the articulation with their
nation-states, their re-
gions, and the larger economic
structure msuch
The emphasis on the transnational and
Cities have typically been deeply
hypermobile character of capital has embedded in the economies
of
to a sense of pOWerleSSneSS their region, indeed often reflect-
, , . _ . , . ing the characteristics of the lat-
36. among local actars...But an analysis ,en and they stui do. But
dties that
that emphasizes place suggests that the are strategic sites in the
global
new glohal grid of strategic sites is a
nect from their region. This con-
terrain for politics and e n g a g e m e n t , mcts with a key
proposition in tra-
ditional scholarship about urban
systems, namely, that these systems promote the territorial
integration of regional and
national economies. There has been a sharpening inequality in
the concentration of
strategic resources and activities between each of these cities
and others in the same
38
country, though this tends to be evident only at fairly
disaggregated levels of evidence.
For example, Mexico City today concentrates a higher share of
some types of economic
activity and value production than it did in the past,^'' but to see
this requites a very
particularized set of analyses.^*
T H E GLOBAL CITY AS A NEXUS FOR N E W POUTICO-
CULTURAL AUGNMENTS
37. The incorporation of cities into a new cross-border geography
of centrality also signals
the emergence of a parallel political geography. Major cities
have emerged as a strategic
site not only for global capital, but also for the
transnationalization of labor and the
formation of translocal communities and identities.^^ In this
regard, cities are a site for
new types of political operations and for a whole range of new
"cultural" and subjective
operations.^' The centrality of place in a context of global
processes makes possible a
transnational economic and political opening for the formation
of new claims and
hence for the constitution of entitlements, notably rights to
place. At the limit, this
could be an opening for new forms of "citizenship."^^
The emphasis on the transnational and hypermobile character of
capital has con-
tributed to a sense of powerlessness among local actors, a sense
ofthe futility of resis-
tance. But an analysis that emphasizes place suggests that the
new global grid of strate-
THE BROWN JOURNAL OF WORLD AFFAIRS
38. Global City: Introducing a Concept
gic sites is a terratti for politics and engagement.^' The loss of
power at the national
level produces the possibility for new forms of power and
politics at the sub-national
level. Further, insofar as the national as container of social
process and power is cracked,̂ "*
it opens up possibilities for a geography of politics that links
sub-national spaces across
borders.^^ Cities are foremost in this new geography. This
engenders questions of how
and whether we ate seeing the formation of a new type of
transnational poUtics that
localizes in these cities.
Immigration, for instance, is one major process through which a
new transnational
political economy and trans-local household strategies are being
constituted. It is one
largely embedded in major cities insofar as these concentrate
most immigrants, cer-
tainly in the developed world, whether in the United States,
japan, or Western Europe.
39. It is, in my reading, one of the constitutive processes of
globalization today, even though
not recognized or represented as such in mainstream accounts of
the global economy.^^
Global capital and the new immigrant workforce are two major
instances of
transnationalized actors that each have unifying properties
across borders internally,
and find themselves in contestation with each other inside
global cities.^^ Researching
and theorizing these issues will require approaches that diverge
from the more tradi-
tional studies of political elites, local party politics,
neighborhood associations, immi-
grant communities, and so on through which the political
landscape of cities and
metropolitan regions has been conceptualized in urban studies.
One way of thinking about the political implications of this
strategic transnational
space anchored in global cities is in terms of the formation of
new claims on that space.
The global city particularly has emerged as a site for new
claims: by global capital,
40. which uses the global city as an "organizational commodity,"
but also by disadvantaged
sectors of the urban population, frequently as internationalized
a presence in global
cities as capital. The "de-nationalizing" of urban space and the
formation of new claims
by transnational actors, raise the question: Whose city is it?
The global city and the network of these cities is a space that is
both place-
centered in that it is embedded in particular and strategic
locations; and it is
transterritorial because it connects sites that are not
geographically proximate yet are
intensely connected to each other. If we consider that global
cities concentrate both the
leading sectors of global capital and a growing share of
disadvantaged populations
(immigrants, many of the disadvantaged women, people of color
generally, and, in the
megacities of developing countries, masses of shanty dwellets)
then we can see that
cities have become a strategic terrain for a whole series of
conflicts and contradictions.
We can then think of cities also as one of the sites for the
41. contradictions of the global-
ization of capital, even though, heeding Katznelson's '̂"^
observation, the city cannot be
reduced to this dynamic.
WINTER/SPRING 2005 • VOLUME XI, ISSUE 2
SASKIA SASSEN
CONCLUSION
An examination of globalization through the concept ofthe
global city introduces a
strong emphasis on strategic components ofthe global economy
rather than the broader
and more diffuse homogenizing dynamics we associate with the
globalization of con-
sumer markets. Consequently, this also brings an emphasis on
questions of power and
inequality. It brings an emphasis on the actual work of
managing, servicing, and fi-
nancing a global economy. Second, a focus on the city in
studying globalization will
tend to bring to the fore the growing inequalities between
highly provisioned and
42. profoundly disadvantaged sectors and spaces ofthe city, and
hence such a focus intro-
duces yet another formulation of questions of power and
inequality.
Third, the concept ofthe global city brings a strong emphasis on
the networked
economy because ofthe nature ofthe industries that tend to be
located there: finance
and specialized services, the new multimedia sectors, and
telecommunications services.
These industries are characterized by cross-border networks and
specialized divisions
of functions among cities rather than inter-national competition
per se. In the case of
global fmance and the leading specialized services catering to
global firms and mar-
kets—law, accounting, credit rating, telecommunications—it is
clear that we are deal-
ing with a cross-border system, one that is embedded in a series
of cities, each possibly
part of a different country. It is a de-facto global system.
Fourth, a focus on networked cross-border dynatnics among
global cities also
allows us to capture mote readily the growing intensity of such
44. 3. Here Arrighi's analysis is of interest, in that it posits the
recurrence of certain organizational patterns
in different phases of the capitalist world economy, but at
higher orders of complexity and expanded
THE BROWN JOURNAL OF WORLD AFFAIRS
The Global City: Introducing a Concept
scope, and timed to follow or precede particular configurations
of the world economy. See, Giovanni
Arrighi, The Long Twentieth Century (London and New York:
Verso, 1994).
4. Originally attributed to Goethe, the term was re-launched in
the work of Peter Hall, The World Cities
(New York: McGraw-Hill, 1966), and more recently re-specified
by John Friedmann and Wolff Goetz,
World City Formation: An Agenda for Research and Action
(Los Angeles: Graduate School of Architecture
and Urban Planning, UCLA, 1982). See also, R. Stren, "The
Studies of Cities: Popular Perceptions, Aca-
demic Disciplines, and Emerging Agendas," in M. Cohen, B.
Ruble, J, Tulchin. and A, Garland, eds..
Preparing for the Urban Future: Global Pressures and Local
Forces (Washington D . C : Woodrow Wilson
Center Press. 1996).
5. Manuel Castells, The Informational City: Information
Technology, Economic Restructuring, and the
45. Urban-Regional Process (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1989).
6. Braudel(1984), f/>. «>.
7. Ibid,; Peter Hall (1966), op. cit. Anthony D . King,
Urbanism, Coknialism, andthe World Economy:
Culture and Spatial Foundations (London and New York:
Routledge, 1990).
8. Janet L. Abu-Lughod, Before European Hegemony: the World
System A.D. 7250-7350 (New York and
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989).
9. King (1990), o;). cit.
10. See also Abu-Lughod (1999), op. aV.; John Rennie Short
and Yeong-Hyun Kim, Globalization and
the City (Essex: Addison Welsley Longman, 1999). A. Sachar,
"The Global Economy and the World
Cities," in A. Sachar and S. Oberg, eds.. The World Economy
and the Spatial Organization of Power (AJdcrshot:
Avebury, 1990).
11. See generally. Kris Olds. Peter Dicken, Philip E Kelly, Lilly
Kong, and Henry Wai-Chung Yeung,
eds.. Globalization and the Asia-Pacific: Contested Territories
(London: Routledge, 1999).
12. Saskia Sassen, "The New Labor Demand in Global Cities,"
in M.P Smith, eds., Cities in Transfor-
mation (Beverly Hills, CA: Sage, 2001): Chapters Two and
Five.
13. A central proposition here, developed at length in my work,
is that we cannot take the existence of
46. a global economic system as a given, but rather need to examine
the particular ways in which the condi-
tions for economic globalization are produced. This requires
examining not only communication capaci-
ties and the power of multinationals, but also the infrastructure
of facilities and work processes necessary
for the implementation oi global economic systems, including
the production ot those inputs that consti-
tute the capability tor global control and the infrastructure of
jobs involved in this production. The em-
phasis shifts to ihc practice of global control: the work of
producing and reproducing the organization and
management of a global production system and a global
marketplace for Pmance, both under conditions
of economic concentration.The recovery of place and production
also implies that global processes can be
studied in great empirical detail,
14. We are seeing the formation of an economic complex with a
valorization dynamic that has proper-
ties clearly distinguishing it from other economic complexes
whose valorization dynamic is far more
articulated with the public economic functions of the state, the
quintessential example being Fordist
manufacturing. Global markets in finance and advanced services
partly operate through a "regulatory"
umbrella that is not state-centered hut market-centered. This In
turn brings up a question of control
linked to the currently inadequate capacities to govern
transactions in electronic space.
15. In this sense, global cities are different from the old capitals
of erstwhile empires, in that they are a
function of crossborder networks tather than simply the most
powerful city of an empire. There is, in my
conceptualization, no such entity as a single global city as there
47. could be a single capital ot an empire; the
category global city only makes sense as a component of a
global network of strategic sites. T h e corporate
subsector whcih contains the global control and command
functions is partly embedded in this netowrk.
16. There are multiple specifications to this argument. For
instance, and going in the opposiute direc-
tion, the development of financial instruments that represent
fixed real estate repositions the latter in
various systems of circulation, including global ones. In so
doing the meaning of capital fixity is partly
transformed and the fixed capital also becomes a site for
circulation. For a fuller elaboration see Saskia
Sassen, The Global City: New York. London, Tokyi'. 2nd ed.
(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
2001), Chapter Two.
WINTER/SPRING 2005 • VOLUME XI, ISSUE 2
SASKIA SASSEN
17. Sassen (2001), op. cit.
18. Carl Abbott, "The InternationalizaiionofWashington D.C.,"
Urban Affairs Review 1), no. 5 (1996):
571-594; Abu-Lughod (1999), op. «V.; John Allen. Doreen
Massey, and Michael Pryke, eds., Unsettling
Cities (London: Routledge, 1999); Allan Cochrane, Jamie Peck,
and Adam Tickell, "Manchester Plays
Games: Exploring the Local Politics of Globalization," Urban
Studies 33 no, 80 (1996): 1319-13336; Fu-
chen Lo and Yue-man Yeung, eds.. Entering World Cities in
Pacific Asia (Tokyo: United Nations Univer-
48. sity Press, 1996); M. M.A. DeSouzeSantos, andM.L. Silveira,
eds., Territorio: Globalizacao eFragmentacao.
(Sao Paul: Editorial Hucitec, 1994).
19. Tbere is a fourth case which 1 bave addressed elsewhere
(Sassen (2001), op. cit.: Chapters Four and
Five), which is represented by new forms of centrality
constituted in electronically generated spaces.
20. Pablo Ciccolella and Iliana Mignaqui, "Buenos Aires:
Sociospatial Impacts ofthe Development of
Global City Functions," in Saskia Sassen, ed., Gbbal Networks/
Linked Cities (New Yotk and London:
Routledge, 2002): 309-325-
21. Pierre Veltz, Mondialisation Villes Et Territoires (P^iis:
Presses Universitaires de France, 1996); Josse
Landrieu, Nicole May, Dirige Par, Tberese Spector, and Pierre
Veltz, eds.. La Ville Exclatee (La Tour d'Aigues:
Editiones de I'Aube, 1998).
22. In the case of a complex landscape such as Europe's, we see
in fact several geographies of centrality,
one global, others continental and regional. A central urban
hierarchy connects major cities, many of
which in turn play central roles in the wider global system of
cities: Paris, London, Ftankfurt, Amsterdam,
Zurich. These cities are also part of a wider network of
European financial/cultural/service capitals, some
with only one, others with several of these liinctions, articulate
the European region and are somewhat less
oriented to the global economy than Paris, Frankfurt, or
London. And then there are several geographies
of marginality: the East-West divide and the North- South
divide across Europe as well as newer divisions.
In Eastern Europe, certain cities and regions, notably Budapest,
49. are ratber attractive for purposes of in-
vestment, both European and non-European, while others will
increasingly fall behind, notably in Ruma-
nia, Yugoslavia, and Albania. We see a similar differentiation
in the south of Europe: Madrid, Barcelona,
and Milan are gaining in the new European hierarchy; Naples,
Rome, and Marseilles are not.
23. Lo and Yeung (1996), op. cit.
24. Sueli Ramos, "Sao Paulo: Articulating a Cross-Border
R^ion," in Sassen (2002), op. cit.
25. Ali Parsa and Ramin Keivani, "The Hormuz Corridor:
Building a Cross-Botder Region Between
Iran and the United Arab Emirates," in Sassen (2002), op.
a/.:l45-182.
26. Stephen Graham 2002, "Communication Grids: Cities and
Infrastructure," in Sassen (2002), op.
cit.: 71-91; Stephen Graham and Simon Mamu, Splintering
Urbanism: NetworkedLnfrastructures. Techno-
logical Mobilities, and the Urban Condition (London:
Routledge, 2001); Manuel Castells, The Riseofthe
Network Society (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1996).
27. Tbis also holds in the highly developed world. For instance,
the Paris region accounts for over forty
percent of all producer services in France, and over eighty
percent of the most advanced ones. New York
City is estimated to account for between a fourth and a fifth of
all US producer services exports though it
has only three percent ofthe U.S. population. London accounts
for forty percent of all exports of pro-
ducer services in the U.K. Similar trends are also evident in
Zurich, Frankiiitt, and Tokyo, all located in
much smaller countries.
50. 28. CristofParnreitet, "Mexico: The Making of a Global City,"
in Sassen (2002), op. a>.: 145-182.
29. David Smith, "The Urban Sociology Meets the Old: Re-
reading Some Classical Human Ecology,"
Urban Affairs Review iQ, no.3 (1995): 432-457.
30. Jantet L. Abu-Lughod, From Urban Village to "East
Village": The Battle for New York's Lower East Side
(Cambridge: Blackwell, 1994); Nira Yuval-Davis, "Etbnicity,
Gender Relations, and tbe Multiculturalism,"
in R. Torres, L. Miron, and J.X. Inda, eds.. Race, Identity, and
Citizenship (Maiden, MA: Blackweil Pub-
lishers, 1999): 112-125; Richard Sennetr, The Conscience of the
Eye: the Design and Social Life of Cities
(New York: W.W. Norton, 1992).
31. James Holston and ArjunAppadurai, "Cities and
Citizenship,"/VWjcCK/fwn? 8, no. 2 (1996): 187-
204; Rodolfo D.Torres, Louis E Miron, and Jonathan Xavier
Inda (1999), op. cit.
32. John Allen, Doreen Masseyj and Michael Pryke, eds.,
Unsettling Cities {London: Routledge, 1999);
THE BROWN JOURNAL OF WORLD AFFAIRS
The Global City: Introducing a Concept
King (1996), op. ar.; Abu-Lughod (1994) op. c/r.; Joan Copjec
and Michael Sorkin, eds.. Giving Ground:
The Politics of Propinquity (New York: Verso, 1999); E. Berner
51. and R, Korff, "Globalization and Local
Resistance: T h e Creation of Localities in Manila and
Bangkok," International Journal of Urban and Re-
gional Research 19, no. 2 (1995): 208-222.
33. Peter J.Taylor, "World Cities and Territorial States: The
Rise and Fall of their Mutuality," in Peter
Taylor and P L Knox, eds.. World Cities in a World-System
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995);
A. Sacbar, "The Global Economy and World Cities," in A.
SacbarandS. Odberg, eds.. The World Economy
and the Spatial Organization of Power {Aldershot: Avebury,
1990).
34. Saskia Sassen, Globalization and its Discountents (New
York: New York Press, 1998): Chapter One
and Ten.
35. Sassen (1998) op. cit.: Part One; Ronald Skeldon, Reluctant
Exiles? Migration from Hog Kong and the
New Overseas Chinese (Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe,
1994).
36. Frank Bonilla, Edwin Melendez, Rebecca Morales, and
Maria de los Angeles Torres, BorderUss Bor-
ders: US. Latinos, Latin Americans, and the Paradox of
Interdependence (Philadelphia: Temple University
Press, 1989). Sassen (2000a, b), op. cit.; Sassen (1998), op. cit.:
Chapter One.
37. Ira Katznelson, Marxism in the City (Oxford and New York:
Clarendon Press and Oxford University
53. Sub-Competency 1: Analyze information from observation to
assess the development of individual children and recommend
developmentally appropriate practice.
Learning Objective 1.1:
Apply knowledge of the
domains of child
development to the
observation of
children.
Response is missing.
Response includes vague
or partial observational
evidence related to each
domain of development.
Response includes specific
observational evidence
related to each domain of
development.
Response is supported by
logical connections to the
professional knowledge
base.
Demonstrates the same
level of achievement as
“2,” plus the following:
54. Response makes a clear
connection to personal
experience and/or
professional practice.
Learning Objective 1.2:
Describe skills and
tools of observation to
assess the
development of a child.
Description of specific
tools is missing.
Response includes vague
or incomplete description
of specific tools of
observation.
Response includes clear
description of observation
tools and a logical
rationale for their use.
Rationale is supported by
logical connections to the
professional knowledge
base.
Demonstrates the same
level of achievement as
“2,” plus the following:
Response includes a
55. specific example of how
the observation tool can
be used in an authentic
early childhood setting.
Part 2: Case Study #2
Sub-Competency 2: Analyze information gathered from children
to support development and learning.
Learning Objective 2.1:
Apply knowledge of the
domains of child
development to assess
a child’s development.
Elements of the cognitive,
physical, and socio-
emotional development
are missing.
Response vaguely or
incompletely describes
elements of the cognitive,
physical, and socio-
emotional development of
Response clearly describes
the elements of the
cognitive, physical, and
socio-emotional
development of the child
portrayed in the scenario.
Demonstrates the same
57. development.
Description is vaguely or
partially relevant to the
work sample.
Response clearly describes
elements of the child’s
development relevant to
the work sample.
Response connects the
elements of development
to one aspect of the work
sample in the scenario.
Response is supported by
logical connections to the
professional knowledge
base.
Demonstrates the same
level of achievement as
“2,” plus the following:
Response connects the
elements of development
to more than one aspect of
the work sample in the
scenario.
Response makes a clear
connection to professional
practice.
Part III: Analysis and Recommendations
Sub-Competency 3: Synthesize information from multiple
sources to assess child development.
Learning Objective 3.1:
58. Analyze children’s
development based on
multiple sources of
information and
knowledge of early
childhood frameworks.
Description is missing.
Response reflects a vague
or incomplete analysis of
each child’s physical,
cognitive, and socio-
emotional development.
Response reflects a logical
analysis of each child’s
physical, cognitive, and
socio-emotional
development, using
specific examples from the
case studies.
Demonstrates the same
level of achievement as
“2,” plus the following:
Response is supported by
references to the
professional knowledge
base.
Sub-Competency 4: Recommend strategies for obtaining
information from families about children’s development and
59. needs.
Learning Objective 4.1:
Describe strategies for
obtaining information
from families to
support the
assessment of a child’s
development.
Description of strategies is
missing.
Response includes vague
or incomplete strategies
for obtaining information
from families to support
the assessment of a child’s
development.
Response includes two
specific strategies for
obtaining information
from families to support
the assessment of a child’s
development.
Response is supported by
logical connections to the
Demonstrates the same
level of achievement as
“2,” plus the following:
Response includes more
61. how information from
families supports
assessment of children’s
development and learning.
Response is supported by
logical connections to the
professional knowledge
base.
Demonstrates the same
level of achievement as
“2,” plus the following:
Response makes a clear
connection to personal
experience and/or
professional practice.
Sub-Competency 5: Recommend developmentally appropriate
practices.
Learning Objective 5.1:
Apply principles of
developmentally
appropriate practice to
recommend learning
experiences for young
children.
Description is missing.
Response includes vague
or incomplete descriptions
of specific learning
62. experiences that are
partially relevant to the
scenarios and vaguely
aligned with the principles
of developmentally
appropriate practice.
Response includes clear
descriptions of specific
learning experiences that
are relevant to the
scenarios and logically
aligned with the principles
of developmentally
appropriate practice.
Response is supported by
logical connections to the
professional knowledge
base.
Demonstrates the same
level of achievement as
“2,” plus the following:
Response makes a clear
connection to personal
experience and/or
professional practice.
Professional Skill 001: Written Communication: Demonstrates
graduate level writing skills.
Learning Objective
PS 1.1:
Use proper grammar,
spelling, and
64. Learning Objective
PS 1.2:
Organize writing to
enhance clarity.
Writing is poorly organized
and incoherent.
Introductions, transitions,
and conclusions are
missing or inappropriate.
Writing is loosely
organized. Limited use of
introductions, transitions,
and conclusions provides
partial continuity.
Writing is generally well-
organized. Introductions,
transitions, and
conclusions provide
continuity and a logical
progression of ideas.
Writing is consistently
well-organized.
Introductions, transitions,
and conclusions are used
effectively to enhance
clarity, cohesion, and flow.
Learning Objective
PS 1.4:
Apply APA style to
65. written work.
APA conventions are not
applied.
APA conventions for
attribution of sources,
structure, formatting, etc.,
are applied inconsistently.
APA conventions for
attribution of sources,
structure, formatting, etc.,
are generally applied
correctly in most
instances. Sources are
generally cited
appropriately and
accurately.
APA conventions for
attribution of sources,
structure, formatting, etc.,
are applied correctly and
consistently throughout
the paper. Sources are
consistently cited
appropriately and
accurately.
Document #2: Parent Questionnaire
Document #2: Parent Questionnaire
Case Study 1: Angelica
Read this questionnaire completed by Angelica’s father. The
questionnaire was originally completed in Spanish, and then
66. translated to English.
1. What name do you use for your child?
Angelica. Some members of the family use “Angie.”
2. What language(s) do you use to talk to your child? Who else
does your child spend time with and what languages do they
use?
I speak Spanish to Angelica, as does her mother and her
grandmother, who lives with us. She has two older brothers,
who both speak English very well. They speak mostly Spanish
with us, but try to teach her English words. It’s what they speak
with their friends and schoolteachers.
3. What types of play or behavior do you notice in your child?
She likes to crawl and is standing up a lot, and even learning to
walk when somebody holds her hands. Everyone in the family
plays with her and helps her. I sing songs to her, in Spanish,
and she likes to touch my mouth and make sounds with hers. We
love music in our home, and she bounces and smiles whenever
it’s playing. She understands some words in Spanish, like the
names of the people in our family and the Spanish word for
“dog.” We have a dog, and she loves to touch his fur and play
with him.
4. Do you have any questions or concerns about your child?
We want Angelica to speak English and Spanish equally well.
Document #3: Parent Interview
Read this interview between Nathan’s mother and the preschool
director.
Name of Parent: Dana
Name of Child: Nathan
67. Director: How do you feel that Nathan is adjusting to being in
school?
Dana: He really loves school now. He was so scared for the first
few months. Now he comes home every day with a story about
something new he learned.
Director: I’m glad to hear it! What behaviors or activities have
you noticed Nathan engaged in at home?
Dana: He spends a lot of time looking at and reading books.
He’s probably memorized half of the ones we read together.
Also, he enjoys playing pretend. He is an only child, so he
creates an imaginary world that includes all kinds of made-up
characters. It’s very involved. I try to schedule a playdate with
a friend at least once a week.
Director: Nathan tends to be shy around other children at
school. Is he talkative at home?
Dana: Very talkative! It’s almost shocking to hear that he is shy
at school, but I have seen it when we go to anywhere with
groups of children, like birthday parties for example.
Director: Do you have any questions or concerns about Nathan?
Dana: Well, I am concerned about his shyness. He plays very
easily with other children when it’s just one or two of them at
our house. I don’t want his shyness to get in the way of his
learning or his confidence in school.
Director: Well, we are seeing him warm up to others more and
more every day. He is a very bright child, and every child
develops differently in different areas. I’m confident that
Nathan will find his way socially very soon. We certainly want
to continue talking and working with you on this issue.
69. 1
Low
2
Average
3
High
Observations and Notes
How well does this child play with other children?
x
Nathan is sometimes shy about joining others in play. He seems
to enjoy it when we encourage his participation. He is learning
to share nicely.
How well does this child express himself verbally?
x
Nathan tends to stay quiet. However, when you ask him a
question one-on-one, he speaks very clearly and has a lot to
say! He also has shown great growth in speaking up when he
needs something, like a snack or to use the bathroom. He is
learning to write very quickly.
How well does this child follow instructions?
x
Nathan listens very closely to instructions and does what he
hears. If the instructions include working with other children or
moving objects around the space, however, he is often slow to
follow.
How well does this child learn new physical skills?
x
71. Your response to this Case Study should include:
· Using each Case Study Part’s documents of materials and
videos as required.
· Reflect the criteria provided in the Rubric.
· Adhere to the required assignment length.
· Use the APA course paper template available here.
Important note: Be sure to write an introduction and conclusion
for your paper. Provide citations in the text of your paper to
support your responses. Remember to list all references cited on
a separate page at the end of your paper.
Part I: Case Study #1
Angelica, 9 months old
Review all of the defined documents below and videos that are
attached and provided for Case Study #1.
Angelica at Play (Video)
Document #1: Weekly Observations
Document #2: Parent Questionnaire
Assignment for part 1:
Write a 1- to 2-page response that addresses the following:
· Choose one segment in the video of Angelica playing that
illustrates her level of development in each of the domains of
child development
· Describe the segment, and explain how it reveals
characteristics of her physical, cognitive, or socio-emotional
development
· What observation tools did you use in the process, and why?
· Make a clear connection to personal experience and/or
professional practice
72. Part II: Case Study #2
Nathan, 4 years old
Review all of the documents defined and attached provided for
Case Study #2.
Document #1: Quarterly Child Assessment Rubric
Document #2: Sample Drawing by Nathan
Document #3: Parent Interview
Assignment for Part 2:
Write a 1- to 2-page response that addresses the following:
· Analyze the work sample from Nathan
· Describe insights related to Nathan’s physical, cognitive, and
socio-emotional development, using specific evidence from the
work sample to support your response.
· Explain why work samples are valuable sources of information
about a child’s development in specific domains.
· Make connections to the professional knowledge base
Part III Case Study 3: Analysis and Recommendation
Assignment for Part 3
In a 5- to 7-page response, analyze the information in each case
study, and make a recommendation for developmentally
73. appropriate practice for each child. Your response should
include:
· A brief analysis of each child’s physical, cognitive, and socio-
emotional development, based on the documents and videos
provided and your knowledge of the frameworks of early
childhood development. Use specific examples from the case
studies.
· A recommendation for at least two additional strategies that
could be used to gather information from families about the
development of the children in the case studies
· An explanation of how information from families supports
assessment of children's development and learning
· A recommendation for developmentally appropriate learning
experiences for each child, with an explanation of how these
experiences reflect the principles of developmentally
appropriate practice
· A clear connection to personal experience and/or professional
practice
